Out people with bankrolls swarm bingo nights at the Gay Center, where drag host Sybil Bruncheon tosses off quips all through the game-playing insanity. Last week, while everyone studiously filled out the boards, Bruncheon fluffed her feathered headdress and said, "I feel like I'm presiding over the SATs on the Titanic."

Everybody won at the MCC Theater benefit at the Supper Club, where they were probably still waiting for Puffy. The entertainment highlight was Harvey Fierstein and Kristin Chenoweth duetting on "Do You Love Me?" (Kristin played Tevye, naturally, and Harvey Golde). But the true star was the woman at my table who observed, "The only one not crying when Halle Berry won the Oscar was Nicole Kidman, which proves she can't act."

Speaking of which, can I say something nice about the Broadway production of The Graduate? It's vile, but having just rented the classic movie version again, I realized the play does give Elaine greater detail and a stronger rationale for going against mom's wishes (if also a nonstop feyness that's positively leaden). Alas, in the play and the movie (both of which are based on the book), the alcoholic victim of neglect, Mrs. Robinson, represents sleazy sellout vulgarity at its worst, and in fact all the grown-ups are portrayed as absolutely corrupt and grotesque. Meanwhile, we're supposed to cheer Elaine for being repulsed by a stripper and thrill as Benjamin the stalker decides that this pretty, vapid creature is the answer to all his ills.(The play, by the way, doesn't give us the "Elaine!" ending, an omission that's one of its few original touches. It does give us extra, incongruous '60s musicincluding a song from Midnight Cowboyno doubt because they needed to fill out the CD of Graduate music that's currently on sale!)

photo: Cary Conover

Magnum force: a Sunday-night reveler works it at The Park.

Did you know that in '67, when the movie came out, Dustin Hoffman was 30 and Anne Bancroft 36, so the alleged generational gross-out shock value was really nil? Another fascinating factoid: The same year saw the release of Thoroughly Modern Millie, which has also just been adapted into a Broadway show. Hey, kids, In Cold Blood came out in '67, toodo I smell an upcoming musical called Blood? Start getting in your limo, Puffy.